


Urban Legends and Suburban Nightmares

by kitkatt0430



Series: Hartmon Halloween [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Ghost Stories, M/M, Nightmares, Post-Season/Series 03 AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: Cisco's suggestion of swapping scary stories bites him on the butt when he winds up having nightmares that evening.
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway
Series: Hartmon Halloween [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992433
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Hartmon Halloween





	Urban Legends and Suburban Nightmares

Wally raised an eyebrow, dubious expression on his face. "Scary stories?" he finally echoed.

"Well, yeah. You know, retelling the urban legends of Central City and seeing who can tell the scariest story. It's a great team bonding experience," Cisco insisted enthusiastically.

"He's very into Halloween," Hartley told Wally, sliding his hands onto Cisco's shoulders as he came up behind his boyfriend. "And he's missing Caitlin and Barry."

"I miss them too," Wally sighed. "Any word on when Caitlin is finally coming back?"

"She... they've finally reached Texas. Which means Caitlin and Frost only have two states left before they'll have visited every state in the contiguous United States and will be returning back to Central. Caitlin said that she and Frost have reached an understanding and are even starting to like each other, so... it'll be different, but it'll be good to have them both back." Though it did mean Cisco wasn't going to be telling any ice related scary stories. Not when he could still remember the vividness of the vibe he had last spring of Frost freezing Cisco's hands solid.

"We're making good progress on bringing Barry back too, though it's still looking like early January," Hartley added. "Once he's got his feet back under him, you'll be able to do your own road trip, Walls."

Wally grinned. "While I'm definitely more interested in getting Barry back, the siren song of the open road is definitely calling to me. As for the scary stories right now? Yeah, sure, why not. I'm not first, though."

"I think Cisco volunteered himself to go first," Hartley said. "Should we wait for Iris, though?"

"No, she said she's working late on a story. She'll come in if there's an emergency, but... she's finally putting her journalism first again," Wally observed, relief coloring his tone. "I think that's a good thing, right? Like... she's not giving up on Barry, but she is finding herself again."

"Oh, definitely," Hartley agreed. "I think Kara's visit last week really helped remind Iris that being a reporter is important work too and not something Barry'd want her to just give up on."

"We really should visit with Kara more often," Cisco mused. "Okay, so... scary story time. You know that patch of the interstate northbound into Central with all the dead trees?"

"Yeah," Wally said, nodding.

"It is kind of creepy," Hartley allowed.

"Well, one evening several years ago, there was this couple driving into town. Now usually it takes about ten minutes to get through that area. But fifteen minutes past that first dead tree and there's still no living trees - or city - in sight." Cisco used dramatic pauses to his advantage there; though not so dramatic he sounded like Shatner. "It's late and already dark, so they keep driving and checking their GPS to see how much longer the drive should take. But they start to realize that the GPS must be broken because it shows them not moving. So they pull over and check their phones, but those show them as being at the same location as the car's GPS system. So they start driving again only to run out of gas. GPS still showing them in the same location they'd been before.

"They pull over again and the husband starts walking while the wife stays with the car. Her husband disappears from view down the road, into the dark with just his phone and flashlight. She, however, starts looking around the area where they've pulled over. And she realizes it's the same place they were parked when they'd pulled over to check the GPS earlier. The rocks are the same, the dead trees are the same, and there are even tread marks in the gravel that overlap a little with the new ones they just added that are a perfect match for their tires. She gets back in the car and tries to call her husband...

"No answer. She tries to call her friends... still no answer. She waits for hours, trying and failing to get a hold of anyone, when suddenly there's a thump against the back of the car. She's terrified, of course, and is just sitting there, shaking... another thump. So she grabs her flashlight - which would double as a blunt weapon if necessary - and some mace from her purse and heads back outside. And collapsed behind the car is her husband. He's unconscious and there are indications that something... dragged him there from somewhere down the road behind the car, dropped him off, and lumbered into the dead woods." Cisco took a deep breath and then continued, "she managed to wake him up by splashing some water in his face and they got back into the car, waiting for daylight.

"They wait for hours past when it should have been morning, their car's clock, their phones, even their watches stopping at 3:42. And hey don't mean to, of course, but they eventually the waiting takes its toll and they fall asleep. When they wake, there's light coming through the windshield and a trucker knocking on their door to offer them a ride back into town. The tree line where the dead trees end and the living ones begin, barely even a yard in front of their car. And their phones and watches all read 10:40 in the morning. They take the offer of a ride and have their car towed, vowing never to go back through that stretch of interstate again. Something had them that night and it almost didn't let them go. They weren't about to give it a second chance.

"So don't go driving - or running - through that patch of of interstate at night. There's no telling who it might decide to keep." Cisco grinned and gave a little maniacal laugh.

Wally shuddered. "Okay, that'd actually make a really good _Twilight Zone_ episode. You know, if we could ever get a reboot that makes it past the first season."

Hartley laughed in amusement. "I agree. It'd also make an interesting _Supernatural_ episode. If they hadn't jumped the shark one too many times."

Beaming, Cisco took a bow. "Thank you, thank you, thank you very much," in a very Elvis-impersonator voice. "So, who's next?"

"I'll go," Wally volunteered. "I've thought of something, anyway." 

"So, um, there's.... there's a graveyard in Keystone. It's full up, has been for the last, like, two or three decades, and it rarely ever gets any visitors anymore. And there is this huge tree in the middle of the cemetery that got planted, like, right after they first started burying people there. So it's huge now and it's actually overtaken at least one of the graves. No one remembers anymore just quite who that person was, just that he did awful things while alive. Some say he was a warlock who practiced the dark arts. Others say he was a serial killer who vowed upon his state execution that they hadn't seen the last of him. Whoever he was, he was bad news.

"Sometimes kids will dare each other to go into the graveyard. And sometimes those kids don't come back out. They say that late at night you can hear the screaming and wailing of the dead. And if you're particularly unlucky, or just there on the night of a full moon, a fog will come over the graveyard so thick you can't find your way out. But don't follow the old torchlight that appears in the distance. It'll lead you right up to that old tree. And then, well... there's an old man sitting at that tree, waiting for a new friend to come to play."

Cisco shivered and Hartley slung an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders. "You're getting creeped out, are you Cisco?"

"What? No. No.... I mean, this was my idea. I'm not... creeped out. Isn't it your turn?"

Hartley exchanged an amused look with Wally, raising an eyebrow and getting a shrug back in response. "Yeah. Sure. My turn."

He hummed under his breath thoughtfully a moment and then nodded. "Between the Upper Peninsula and the Green Bay in Lake Michigan there's this chain of islands where the first full-sized cargo vessel to sail the Great Lakes - called Le Griffon - is said to have sunk. Now Le Griffon's maiden voyage started on the Niagara River, passed through Lake Erie, they took the time to name Lake St. Claire on the way through to Lake Huron, and stopped in Mackinaw City just in time for Sunday Mass. The final stop before disappearing was Washington Island, where the ship was loaded up with valuable furs and other expensive cargo. The owner of the ship, the explorer Robert de La Salle disembarked there, intending to plan out an expedition further to the west while Le Griffon made the return trip to the Niagara River.

"This is, of course, where things went terribly wrong. Some say a storm caused the ship to wreck itself upon the islands. Others say La Salle trusted the wrong man to captain the ship in his absence and he mutinied with the crew, intending to steal the cargo - and the resulting profits - for themselves only to sink in treacherous waters. Others believe La Salle himself doomed the ship, secretly accepting stolen, cursed cargo to ship for a wealthy backer of his expeditions. Whatever the truth is, no one has found Le Griffon yet. She still rests out there in the lake somewhere, her crew entire crew still aboard, waiting to be salvaged. It's said you can hear them out on the waters near the islands, still trying to keep from sinking, as they've yet to realize they've already lost."

Cisco shivered again, snuggling closer to Hartley. But he was grinning. "That was fun. Want to tell some more?"

Wally laughed and nodded. "Let's get some popcorn first."

* * *

Jerking awake, Cisco flung himself out of bed because there were zombie pirates climbing out of the graveyard and he had to get out of there and... and...

And he was in his bedroom and there were no zombie pirates in a graveyard, unless he wanted to watch that one Scooby Doo animated movie with the were-cat vampires.

Settling on the edge of his bed, Cisco breathed in and out slowly until his heart stopped thundering in his chest. Maybe the scary stories that evening hadn't been the greatest idea, but it had been fun to have a bit of an unspoken competition with Hartley and Wally to see who could come up with the most frightening tale. It probably hadn't helped Cisco's penchant for nightmares, though, that Hartley based all of his off historical unsolved mysteries while both Cisco and Wally had based theirs around real places in Central and Keystone.

It was about two-thirty and Cisco just knew he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep any time soon. So he grabbed his phone and settled into bed again, planning to just read until a more decent hour and then probably crash at work. Nice safe, brightly lit work where Hartley would be to make Cisco feel safe.

And... huh.

Hartley made Cisco feel safe. Cisco who had his phone in hand.

He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. Hartley was sleeping and deserved a full night's sleep instead of having it interrupted by his ridiculous boyfriend who'd managed to scare himself silly with his own Halloween themed scary story contest.

Cisco pressed the call button anyway.

"'Sco, wazza'matter?" Hartley greeted after the second ring. "Meta alert? My phone didn't..."

"No emergency," Cisco cut in quickly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called. Just... go back to sleep, okay?"

"Nightmares?" Hartley asked, sounding more alert already. "Do you want me to come over, Cisco?"

Cisco went quiet.

"Cisco?"

"Yeah. Nightmares. Um... I mean... if I opened a breach would you..."

"Open a breach. I'll be right there," Hartley promised.

Letting out a shaky breath, Cisco opened a breach from his bedroom to Hartley's. The call disconnected as Hartley walked through and clambered into bed with Cisco, wrapping his arms around Cisco's chest and nuzzling against Cisco's shoulder. The breach faded away, leaving the room dark again, save for the small glow of the lamp on Cisco's nightstand.

"I'm sorry I woke you up over nothing," Cisco muttered, feeling embarrassed. 

"I'm not. Any excuse to snuggle with you in bed is fine by me," Hartley murmured. "You want to talk about your nightmare?"

"Zombie pirates were erupting from a graveyard. Surrounded by lots of dead trees and fog... you know, a nice mashup of all those creepy stories we told this evening." Cisco yawned and tucked himself against Hartley's chest. "Just, you know, generic nightmares, nothing vibe related. Unless we have a meta who causes a zombie pirate uprising in our near future and I'd rather not joke about that, so..."

Hartley snorted in amusement and started rubbing Cisco's back along his spine. Cisco melted at the touch.

He'd have slept a lot better, Cisco supposed, if Hartley had been there from the start. Maybe it was time to ask Hartley to move in with him... in the morning... after they'd woken up again...

Hartley made a satisfied noise as Cisco drifted back off to sleep in his arms, before falling back asleep himself. Both of them feeling safe and content, wrapped up in blankets together.


End file.
